September 09, 2008

September 14, 2008 – Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Fear is a reality that we all must deal with in some
way.Personally, heights scare me out
of my mind.Rationally, I knew when I
stood on the top of the Empire State building in high school that there was
practically no way I could fall off, but I still could not get myself to
physically step through the door and outside onto the terrace area.I spent fifteen minutes trying to work
myself up to go through those doors, but I literally could not make myself do
it.

Some fears, like mine at the Empire State Building, are
irrational.Others are very
rational.Jews in Germany during the
Nazi regime had legitimate reason to fear for their lives and the lives of
their loved ones.People living in Iraq
or Afghanistan or other war-torn areas of the world surely experience at least
uncertainty if not fear at what could possibly happen at any moment with very
little to no warning.Franklin
Roosevelt once famously remarked that we have nothing to fear but fear itself,
and while it’s a great sound bite most people know that there are things out in
the world that do cause fear in the hearts of human beings.

In our reading from Exodus this morning, we have the famous
story of Israel’s final deliverance from the hand of Pharaoh and the start of
their journey into covenant relationship with God.The story functions as a bridge; in some ways, its themes echo
themes found in the stories of the plagues, with Pharaoh’s heart being
“hardened” or “stiffened” (Exo 14:8) and the idea of the LORD being made known
to Pharaoh (7:17), the Egyptians (7:5, 14:4,18), or Israel (10:2).

More properly, however, the story is a part of the
wilderness tradition, setting the stage for themes of the uncertainty of the Israelites
and God’s deliverance and providence.Throughout the plague narratives, Israel takes on a mostly passive role,
and Pharaoh and Moses (with his side-kick Aaron) are the main players.Pharaoh and Egypt however become passive in
this story, almost secondary as the main drama plays out between God, with
Moses as God’s representative, and Israel.

The usual pattern follows something along this line: 1)
uncertainty or fear over a threat or crisis, 2) the people grumble at Moses, 3)
God through Moses provides, and 4) the crisis is averted.This rough pattern appears (by my count) at
least three more times before the giving of the covenant and the Ten
Commandments in chapter 20: Exodus 15:22-27 (the bitter water), 16:1-15 (bread
from heaven), and 17:1-6 (the water out of the rock).You can possibly also interpret 17:8-16 in this pattern with the
threat of Amalek against the Israelites, and the Golden Calf story in 32:1-14
could be understood as an attempt by the people to replicate this pattern with
Aaron when they feared for Moses’ fate on the top of Sinai.

In this case, the threat or crisis is the oncoming Egyptian
army, and the Israelites are afraid as one could well imagine.In reaction, they turn on Moses (the
grumbling) and ask, “Was it for want of graves in Egypt that you brought us to
die in the wilderness?” (Exo 14:10 NJPS).Moses instead implore the Israelites to have faith in the God that has
already brought them this far.“The
LORD will battle for you,” he argues.“Hold your peace!” (14:14 NJPS).

And so the stage is set for God’s providence and action; the
author of the story is working out of the theology of the divine warrior,
understanding the LORD as the one who will fight on behalf of Israel against
the one who threatens their existence, i.e. Pharaoh.

So God’s angel and the pillar of cloud cut off the
Egyptians’ advance and darkness came upon the sky (14:19-20) and then comes the
famous cinematic moment: the parting of the sea.The Israelites are able to cross the muddy ground, but the
Egyptians chariots (the very thing that most likely gave them their
overwhelming military advantage) are unable to follow and turn to flee but are
swept up in the waters

And so the fear of the Israelites is relieved and replaced
by the fear of the LORD.This fear,
however, is not a fear where one trembles and cringes, but is an awe-struck,
overwhelmed sense of wonder at what God has done.To fear the LORD in biblical language is less about fearing God’s
wrath and more about having respect and acknowledgement for God’s power and
authority.

There are troubling aspects to this story, just as there are
in the plague narratives earlier in the book and in the “holy war” stories that
follow.But in terms of this particular
story, there is a point where evil must be defined as evil and must be dealt
with.Within the context of Exodus,
Pharaoh had dug his own grave.Time and
again he was given the chance to end the conflict without it coming to this
point, and instead pursued the Israelites blind to the LORD’s admonitions and
warnings through the plagues.

I talked about this before when I blogged on the flood
narrative, the tension between God’s love and mercy with God’s righteousness
and justice.Evil must be judged and
something must be done about it.Miroslav
Volf puts it incredibly well in his book Exclusion and Embrace, which I
have referred to on this blog before:

If Augustine was right that “the city of this world…aims at
domination, which holds nations in enslavement” and “is itself dominated by that
very lust for domination” (Augustine, The City of God, I, Preface), then
God must be angry.A
nonindignant God would be an accomplice in injustice, deception, and
violence…God will judge, not because God gives people what they deserve, but
because some people refuse to receive what no one deserve; if evildoers
experience God’s terror, it will not be because they have done evil, but
because they have resisted to the end the powerful lure of the open arms of the
crucified Messiah (Volf, Exclusion and Embrace, 297-98).

The crossing of the sea is a story that transitions a people
from fear to awe, from doubt to faith, from cries of despair to shouts of joy
and worship.It is because of the God
who heard their cries of injustice and has delivered them that they now can
sing and dance with joy, liberated for a new life and new purpose.It is the LORD who turns fear into joy, who
delivers us from those dark places of enslavement and exile and brings us
through the deep into a new dawn.

Other Theological Web Resources

Recommended Reading

Thomas Cahill: How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)Wish I had read this years ago. Fascinating book, providing insight into the life of St. Patrick, and arguing for the positive role Celtic monasticism had in preserving the history and literature of the classical world. Plus, I think that Cahill's observations about Patrick's mission to the Irish also speaks to some of the things the emergent movement is wrestling with in the contemporary church.